Orinate of petrified wood

Petrified wood or fossil wood, is a stone that originated from trees that got covered under thick layers of volcanic ash. The ash contains a variety of minerals, which slowly dissolve in the groundwater. Because the trees are no longer in contact with oxygen, the wood does not rot as quickly as normal. Groundwater steeped the tree in the meantime with minerals where they are deposited in the wood cells.Slowly but surely, the wood decays and the minerals replace the wood cells.

This goes very slowly so that the structure of the wood is perfectly preserved in the minerals.

This petrified wood contains no real wood, but only the imprint of the tree formed by minerals. These pieces are from Madagascar and up to 220 million years old!